Woman's Sister Stuck In China

June 07, 1989|By DAN DeWITT Staff Writer

JAMES CITY (COUNTY) — Despite State Department assurances that Americans in Beijing are free to leave on commercial airline flights, Victoria Fahringer said her sister has been trying vainly to get out of the city for more than a month.

Fahringer, of James City County, said she last talked to her sister, Aletha Jones, about a month ago. At that time Jones, who has been in the city since August teaching English at Beijing University, had already bought a ticket for a flight to Hong Kong but couldn't leave the city.

"The details were sketchy," Fahringer said. "She just couldn't get out."

The first of the large demonstrations in the nation's capital city was on April 27, when 150,000 students marched for democracy.

During the early protests, "she was watchful and concerned, but not terrified," Fahringer said.

Fahringer said that though her sister had avoided any public protest, "you are in greater danger when you are American. She's already suspect of giving ideas to the people."

Her sister also may be in greater danger than most Americans there because she works at the university, Fahringer said.

A State Department spokesman in Washington said Tuesday that the 1,440 Americans working or studying in the city have been advised to leave as soon as possible on commercial flights.

He also said these planes are running on schedule.

"We have no information on any difficulties regarding departures from Beijing," the spokesman said.

He said the department is considering chartering commercial airplanes to lift the citizens out. But this has not been done yet, he said, because regular flights are still available and there have been no reports of serious injuries to any American citizen in Beijing.

Other nations, including Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland, have hired jets to evacuate their citizens.

Fahringer said that her sister is not only stranded, but also cut off from phone communication. When she tries to call her sister's dorm, those who answer said they don't know Jones or simply hang up, Fahringer said.

The State Department spokesman said that the department has received several calls from other people who can't reach relatives in Beijing.

A State Department representative whom Fahringer spoke to Tuesday said that vans had been sent to the university earlier in the day to take American students and teachers to hotels in the city.

Hearing this made her feel better, she said, "but only vaguely. It shows that the university is a target."

Jones, who is about 25 years old, studied education and Chinese culture at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fahringer said.

What interested her most is the nation's "ancient heritage and that it is just opening up after so many years," Fahringer said.

"She is so fond of the Chinese people, I'm sure this is devastating," she said.

Jones had said that she learned more from her students than they learned from her, Fahringer said.

"She was already disapointed when people were told not to talk to her," because she was American, Fahringer said. "These were people she had be come very close to."